These are desperate times for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
A new sheriff will be arriving in Albany come Jan. 1, and as we all know, no town needs two sheriffs.
Silver is on the hook now to deliver a plan to Washington to more than double the number of charter schools in the state from 200 to about 460. His failure to provide a sufficient plan earlier this year cost the state $700 million in federal Race to the Top funds.
He now has a second chance to remedy that loss by reapplying by June 1. The Senate already passed a bill that would probably meet Washington”™s requirements on charters schools and thus result in the release of the funds.?But Silver likes the teachers unions, and they like him. So what”™s the problem with charter schools? Most are not unionized; and there”™s the rub.?But Silver is being pressured by New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and pro-charter advocates. Silver has little, if any, recourse.?Just how beholden is he to the teachers unions??It”™s a do or die situation for Silver.
Does he do the right thing and deliver for the state or does he follow the same old modus operandi and deliver for the teachers unions.?There is another side to the Race to the Top program and that is to set in place a more effective way of evaluating schools, from teachers to principals, to get rid of the deadwood.
Right now public school teachers and principals are either rated as satisfactory or unsatisfactory.?Last week, Silver showed he was part of the team by lauding the Assembly”™s passage of bill A11171, which would create a comprehensive statewide evaluation system for teachers and principals.
Under the bill”™s provisions, 40 percent of the evaluation would be based upon student achievement. The remaining 60 percent would be comprised of “locally developed measures,” including observing the teachers in action.?The annual performance reviews would be a factor in promotion, retention, tenure determination, termination and supplemental compensation.?The reviews would also toss the current satisfactory or unsatisfactory ratings and instead rate the effectiveness of teachers and principals as either highly effective, effective, developing or ineffective.?Hmm.?Imagine if taxpayers of this state were allowed to evaluate our elected representatives in Albany?
No more having to wait for Election Day to make changes.?Inaction on the budget would mean an automatic rating of ineffective and loss of pay.?Campaigning for another position in state government with total disregard for the job you were elected to would also result in an ineffective rating as well as loss of pay.?Where else in the world, other than in the elected bodies of our nation, is poor performance tolerated??A small business relies on all of its employees to work at 100 percent. Imagine if one of your workers decides to show up for work, but does things not pertinent to his job, let alone your business??Would you tolerate that??Don”™t think so.?That worker would be called into the office and told to get back to do what he was hired to do.?Failure to do that would result in an automatic dismissal.?In the real world, nonperformance and underperformance is not tolerated.?It”™s pretty simple in the business world; work and you get paid.?With so many having been in the state Legislature for so long, they could not hold a job in the private sector, having grown insulated from the real world.?Many have played the system and turned their elected posts into sinecures.?Incompetence can no longer be tolerated, especially as the state moves toward insolvency. The state has $60.4 billion in debt. And that number is expected to grow 11 percent over the next four years, providing the state doesn”™t do any more borrowing.
In lauding the passage of the Assembly bill, Silver said: “We have an obligation to New York state”™s children to provide them with the best education possible.”?Too bad he can”™t say: We have an obligation to New York state”™s businesses and hardworking taxpayers to provide them with the best representation possible.
